Apple opens code for OS, Rendezvous

September 25, 2002, 03:38 PM —  IDG News Service — 

Apple Computer Inc. Wednesday released the code for its networking protocol, Rendezvous, which enables computers to recognize such things as printers and consumer electronics devices over wireless networks without the need for any configuration by end users.

As Apple had indicated previously, it has made Rendezvous available under its Apple Public Source license, which allows users to view and modify the code. The move is expected to speed up adoption of the technology, Apple said.

"With Rendezvous, our goal is to make this a technology that is applicable across the entire industry," said Chris Bourdon, product line manager for Mac OS X. "We don't want to create a proprietary networking technology here."

Some of the first companies that have pledged to support Rendezvous include Epson America Inc., Hewlett Packard Co. and Lexmark International Inc. Each have said they will release printers that can be identified over wireless networks using the networking technology. Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV has also said that it plans to release television and stereo systems with support for Rendezvous so that users can do things like view on their television digital photos stored on a computer.

In addition to recognizing hardware, Rendezvous can also identify applications or services that are available on a device. For example, Apple's new instant messaging application, iChat, can automatically create a buddy list of other iChat users in a local network. If a new user appears in the network, iChat will automatically recognize that user through Rendezvous, Bourdon said.

The Cupertino, California, company this week also released the code for the latest version of the Darwin operating system, an open source version of Apple's commercial software Mac OS X . Darwin Version 6.0.1 brings the open source operating system up to date with Version 10.2 of Apple's Mac OS X operating system, also known as Jaguar, the company said.

Darwin 6.0.1, which was made available on Apple's Web site Monday, can be installed on computers that run either on PowerPC processors or chips based on the x86 architecture, Apple said. Darwin and Mac OS X are partly based on the Free BSD operating system, a variant of Unix.

Developers can find more information about Rendezvous and links to the code on Apple's Web site at http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/rendezvous/.

» posted by abennett

IDG News Service

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

I like it!
Post a comment
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
peer-to-peer

Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly

claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century

pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin

Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?

sjvn
64-bits of protection?

jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith

mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive

 

Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325

Join the conversation here

The Daily Tip

The Daily TipQuick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.

Hot tips:

Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.

Newsletters

Subscribe to ITWORLD TODAY and receive the latest IT news and analysis.

I would like to receive offers via email from ITworld partners.
By clicking submit you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in ITworld's privacy policy.
Featured Sponsor

AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.

In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.

On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.

Marketplace